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Jaitley was earlier prevented from coming out of the airport on Jan 24, 2011 and August 11, 2013

On Saturday when Defence Minister Arun Jaitley would arrive in Srinagar he would be accorded red carpet welcome before heading to the fortified venue of the high profile security review meeting along with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, top brass of the Northern Command, top officers of the state police and para military forces.

Interestingly, on two previous occasions in January 2011 and later last year in August 2013 Jaitley was prevented by the state govt to even come out of the airport in Jammu citing law and order related problem.

As leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley along with LoP Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj were prevented from stepping out of the Jammu airport on January 24, 2011 to take part in the Ekta Yatra and hoist tricolour in Lal Chowk of Srinagar.

The three leaders, who flew in to Jammu on a chartered plane, were not allowed to leave the airport for over five hours and later they had to stage a dharna on the tarmac in protest. During the day long drama when the BJP leaders refused to head back to New Delhi the Congress led UPA govt intervened in the matter to pacify Omar Abdullah.

Meanwhile, the BJP trio sat on a dharna on the tarmac after they were allowed to deplane.

As word spread about their detention, hundreds of BJP supporters outside the airport raised slogans against the Omar Abdullah government.

“It is a draconian situation here. They have created an almost Emergency-like situation. We will not accept this order as we are free citizens of India and entitled to land in Jammu,” Kumar said.

About two hours after landing in Jammu, the three leaders were taken to the airport lounge.

As BJP made it clear that it is in no mood to back off from its decision to hoist the tricolour at Lal Chowk on Wednesday, home minister P Chidambaram spoke to Jaitley and chief minister Omar Abdullah in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Chidambaram said he had asked for the BJP leaders to be given access to the airport lounge. He asked Jaitley to respect the wishes of the chief minister and return to Delhi.

Omar told the home minister that the leaders would not be allowed to the attend the public rally in Jammu.

As requested by Chidambaram, Omar agreed to send state chief secretary SS Kapoor and DGP Kuldip Khoda to talk to Jaitley and Swaraj and persuade them to abandon their plan.

On August 11, 2013, BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who had planned to lead a party team to trouble-torn Kishtwar in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, found his plans foiled as authorities did not allow him to proceed after he landed at Jammu airport.